Freeport workers still stuck in Timika

Freeport workers still stuck in Timika

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 12/28/2011 3:45 PM


Thousands of workers of gold mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) are still unable to go back to work at the company’s mining site in Tembagapura district, Papua, due to continued industrial unrest.

“About 8,000 workers are still in Timika [city] and cannot go to Tembagapura [district] because contractor employees are still not satisfied. KPI management has yet to comply with the agreement,” PTFI labor union spokesman Juli Parorrongan said on Wednesday, referring to PTFI contractor PT Kuala Pelabuhan Indonesia.

Juli refused to elaborate on the details, saying that it was a contractor workers’ internal issue.

He told The Jakarta Post that hundreds of PTFI workers had left Timika for Tembagapura.

“Four buses, each carrying 63 workers, left Timika on Monday and are now in Tembagapura. But they can’t start work yet as we along with the contractor workers, are still stuck [in Timika],” he said.

“The PTFI labor union doesn’t want to get involved in their internal issues to avoid conflict,” Juli said, adding that he hoped the contractor’s management would soon resolve the internal dispute.

The labor union and the company’s management reached a deal earlier this month, prompting workers to end their three-month strike after the company decided to increase their wages by up to 40 percent.

However, some of the workers have reportedly refused to go back to their workplaces due to a lack of guarantees for hundreds of contractor and sub-contractor employees.

This includes those working for PT KPI and PT Pangansari Utama, who had been dismissed by the management because they had staged rallies alongside PTFI workers. (swd)